Conventionally, an implant body may be embedded into the bone and fixed in a contact configuration for application as an artificial bone, a bone attachment material, a bone reinforcing material, or the like.
For example, when a tooth root of a permanent tooth is destroyed by tooth decay or damage, a dental implant is used in which an implant body is inserted into a drill hole in the alveolar bone, and is fixed thereto. The dental implant is generally configured from an implant body that is fixed to the alveolar bone, and an abutment that is threadably attached to the implant body to thereby enable detachable mounting of an artificial dental crown.
The material currently employed to configure the implant body is often pure titanium. However since use of pure titanium entails the disadvantage of the risk of the occurrence of metal allergies or the attachment of bacteria, in recent years, ceramic materials that exhibit superior bio-affinity and mechanical strength have been examined as alternative materials adapted for an implant body. For example, Patent Literature 1 discusses several materials including a ceramic material as a material for an implant. Furthermore Japanese Patent Application Laid-Open No. 4046213 discloses the chemical, electrical, mechanical, laser processing or the like to create surface roughness on the surface of the implant in order to impart biocompatibility.